Rock 'n' Roll History for
March 23


<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->



1955 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Elvis Presley auditions for TV's Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, where he plays "Good Rockin' Tonight". His performance is weak and the show's producers would turn him down.

1956 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Elvis Presley's first album is released by RCA. The self-titled disc would sell over a million copies and become The King's first Gold record. Featuring the single, "Blue Suede Shoes", the LP would prove to be the first Rock 'n' Roll album to ever reach #1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart.

March 23
Disk Jockey Alan Freed hosts a three day Rock 'n' Roll Stage Show at the State Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. After eleven youngsters are arrested by over-enthusiastic police, famed psychiatrist, Dr. Francis J. Braceland would state that Rock music is "a communicable disease with music appealing to adolescent insecurity and driving teenagers to do outlandish things. It is cannibalistic and tribalistic."

1958 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
A teenage quartet from Hollywood, California who called themselves The Four Preps saw their first big hit, "Twenty-Six Miles (Santa Catalina)" peak at #2 on the Hot 100. They would go on to place six more songs in the Top 40 over the next four years, including "Big Man" (#3) and "Down By The Station" (#13).

1959 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Ray Peterson recorded the original version of "The Wonder Of You", which will climb to #25 on the Billboard chart. Elvis Presley would take the same song to #9 in 1970.

March 23
The Skyliners, a five member group from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered the Billboard Pop chart for the first time with the now classic doo-wop hit, "Since I Don't Have You". The song will be their biggest success, reaching #12. Joe Rock would later say that he was upset about a girl who had just left him and wrote most of the lyrics while sitting in his car between stoplights.

1961 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Elvis Presley records "Can't Help Falling In Love" at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. The song would go on to be certified Platinum for sales of one million copies, and rise to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was kept out of the top spot by Joey Dee And The Starliters' "Peppermint Twist". In the UK it would top the chart for four weeks. According to a 2020 survey by UK retailer OnBuy, "Can't Help Falling In Love" is the most popular choice for couples as the song for the first dance at their wedding.

1963 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
23-year-old Dion DiMucci marries his girlfriend, Susan Butterfield, a year and a half after releasing his US number one hit, "Runaround Sue". Dion stated in his autobiography The Wanderer, that his wife and the song are not connected.

1964 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Vee-Jay Records release The Beatles' single "Do You Want To Know A Secret". It would become the band's first US Top Ten song to feature George Harrison as a lead singer, reaching #2 on the Billboard chart the following May.

March 23
Elvis Presley received his final discharge from the US Army Reserve. He had left active duty in February, 1960.

March 23
The Duke of Edinburgh presents The Beatles with an award for Best Beat Group at the annual Carl-Alan Awards.

March 23
A book of short stories and poems by John Lennon titled In His Own Write is published in the UK by Jonathan Cape. The 80 page book was both a critical and commercial success, selling around 300,000 copies in Britain. It also became a best seller in America at the height of Beatlemania.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Stax Records releases "Hold On! I'm Comin'" by Sam And Dave. The single will peak at number one on the Billboard R&B chart and at number 21 on the Hot 100. Although some radio stations refused to play the record because of the suggestive lyrics, the title came about quite by accident. The song was written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who came up with the title of the song spontaneously when Hayes was trying to get Porter to hurry out of the Stax Studios restroom and get back to songwriting.

1968 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Blue Cheer enter the Billboard Hot 100 for the first and only time with their Heavy Metal version of Eddie Cochran's 1958 hit "Summertime Blues". The single would rise to #14 and helped push the album "Vincebus Eruptum" to #11. Jim Morrison of The Doors called the trio "The single most powerful band I've ever seen."

1969 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Entertainers Jackie Gleason, Kate Smith, The Lettermen and Anita Bryant appear in Miami, Florida at what is billed as the Rally for Decency. Posters for the event warn that "longhairs and weird dressers" won't be allowed inside. Four days later, President Richard Nixon sends a letter of appreciation to the organizers of the rally.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
The film The Concert for Bangladesh is released in America. The movie documents the two benefit concerts that were organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to raise funds for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

1974 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Cher enjoys her third, solo, US number one hit with "Dark Lady", a song written by The Ventures' keyboard player Johnny Durrill. It made #36 in the UK.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Elvis Presley began his final tour at the Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. The 49 date jaunt would conclude with his last ever concert at the Indianapolis Indiana Market Square Arena on June 26th, 1977.

1983 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
ZZ Top release their eighth studio album, "Eliminator". Four singles would be issued from the LP: "Gimme All Your Lovin'" (#37), "Sharp Dressed Man" (#56), "TV Dinners" and "Legs" (#8). Eliminator is ZZ Top's most successful album, reaching #9 on the Billboard 200 chart, with sales of over ten million copies in the United States.

1985 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Billy Joel marries Christy Brinkley on a boat moored alongside the Statue Of Liberty. Her engagement ring was described as a diamond solitaire "the size of a sugar cube." The pair would split in March, 1994.

March 23
John Lennon's son Julian gave his first concert in San Antonio, Texas. Over the next two years he would place four songs on the Hot 100, including "Valotte" (#9) and "Too Late For Goodbyes" (#5).

March 23
Former Earth Wind And Fire vocalist Philip Bailey teamed up with Phil Collins to top the UK chart with "Easy Lover", which had reached #2 in the US in February.

March 23
Creedence Clearwater Revival front man John Fogerty went to #1 on the US album chart with his third solo LP, "Centerfield". Using over-dubbing, Fogerty played all of the instruments on every track. The RIAA has since certified the album Double-Platinum (2 million album sales) on the strength of the hit singles "The Old Man Down the Road", "Rock and Roll Girls", and the title track.

1991 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Elton John joined George Michael on stage at London's Wembley Arena for a duet on the 1974 hit "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me". The live version will be released as a single and would top the charts on both sides of the Atlantic next December. Michael would donate $500,000 from the royalties to various charities.

1992 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
PolyGram - Mercury records releases Billy Ray Cyrus' rendition of "Achy Breaky Heart". First released a year earlier by The Marcy Brothers with the title "Don't Tell My Heart", the song will top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, and climb to #4 on the Hot 100. It went on to become the first Country single to be certified Platinum since "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in 1983.

2000 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Tina Turner kicks off her Twenty Four Seven tour at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The trek would gross $122.5 million from 108 shows, with an attendance of 2.4 million spectators.

2011 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
The Who's Pete Townshend told Britain's Uncut magazine that he regretted ever forming the band. "What would I have done differently? I would never have joined a band. Even though I am quite a good gang member and a good trooper on the road, I am bad at creative collaboration."

2023 - ClassicBands.com

March 23
Keith Reid, a founding member and main lyricist for Procol Harum, passed away at the age of 76. Reid, who wrote the words to the band's biggest hit, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", had been battling cancer for the last few years of his life.



<-- Previous Day -- Home Page -- Next Day -->